Feedback, 31 January.

I'd echo Mz's points and add that some of you need to be more precise in your analyses of your research, too: what does "fast" camerawork mean - movement or editing? When you talk about music, you need to describe it (pace, instrumentation etc). Again, this will stand you in good stead for the exam.

Feedback Fri 30 Jan

Intriguing and has potential.  You need to avoid the potential to have horror here though.  The murderer in the mask could remind viewers of 'Scream'.  Try to complicate it a bit.  What is the enigma for the audience - for use of brain as well as emotion?  Perhaps follow the witnesses or the murderer but not both?

Atmosphere/Sound/Lighting

The group has decided that we would want to shoot on a gloomy day, with preference we would want it to be quite chilly or crisp. Time of shooting shoot be mid-morning so that there is a consistent amount of light throughout the whole shooting process. 

Our location has to be quite dense (depending on angles of shots) due to the fact that the audience should only be able to see more forest in the distance rather than a road with moving cars etc...

Lighting wise, each member of the group is going to prepare something to help get the essence of the shot completely correct. For instance, a large piece of cardboard covered in tin foil might be suitable for this.

For next lesson:

Each member of the team has to take a photo of a good location and also has to prepare a possible additional outside lighting device. 

Feedback Wed 28 Jan

You need to be more selective in your points.  The descriptions of what you see in the films should include use of terminology (eg: the protagonists are on a train, rather than 'they are'; a seductive female in her early 20s rather than 'she'; panning shot rather than 'it goes to' etc).  Practise this from the start and you will be more successful in exams and evaluations.

The Final Plot

Two teenage friends (the protagonists) are kicking a ball around in a forest. There is also a woman walking her dog in the background.

As one of the teenagers answers a phone call, he kicks the ball slightly off course, meaning that the other person has to go collect it.

When the ball has been collected the other teenager turns round and drops his phone in disbelief and stares, in the shot, the person collecting the ball then turns round, and stops as well. Just before this, there is a slow motion shot of the slide up phone landing on the floor.

The camera tracks round the two of them to the back of their heads, and in the distance you see what they were surprised about.

They see the immobile body of the dog walker sprawled across the forest floor with the dog sniffing around the body. They see a plain white mask with a smeared red handprint diagonally across on the face of the mask.  

As the two look on, they see a dark figure (the antagonist) strolling casually away from them, further on in the woods. The person then turns round slightly and stares at the protagonists for what seems like an eternity, and the protagonists notice that he is wearing the same mask, only without the handprint. 

The camera zooms-in in cuts to a close up of the eyes of the mask on the antagonists, as he turns away the shot is blackened from his hooded top, the title credits then come in.

Plot Idea

A man walks into an office, you don't see his face, just from his hands holding his briefcase down to his recognisable shoes.

He is handed a piece of paper and a mask in an envelope, from someone who's face is also not seen. The audience can see a small list of names and addresses on the paper.

As the man walks out of the office, you see him place the mask over his face, the shot of this will probably be from behind, so his real face is still not visible.

It then cuts to a shot of a woman (who is coincidentally the first person on the list), after seeing what she has been doing for about 5 seconds, the camera focus pulls to a darkly dressed man wearing the distinguishable mask in the distance. The next shot is then of the woman dead.

This continues, but then, when it comes to the last person on the list, the method of killing is shooting, but, the killer misses the shot, and the chace is on. The opening sequence that the group are creating can then end here, setting the plot up for any given happening.

Plot ideas

The first plot we came up with together was ;

A mum and a son are walking through a forest. The small boy runs to fetch a ball which he loses in the leaves. As he turns around to look at his mum he sees her lying on the floor with a man standing over her wearing a white mask, at this point the killer does not know the kid is watching. As the is standing over the body the kids gasps, this alerts the killer that the boy is there, the killer turns to look at the kid with the mask on. He slowly takes it off and puts it over the mothers face and walks off. The film then goes forward in time and zooms out of the mask where the kid who is now older is staring at the mask, while staring at the mask on his friends face he hears the same whistling tune.

Get Carter

 

The last film we watched was Get Carter. The opening sequence to this film is Michael Cane on a train, while he credits run every time they go through a tunnel as then the writing stands out.

One thing that I like about this film, which I think makes it run smoothly is the soundtrack, the music seems to go with the train sound. This helps the scene to flow.

Another technique that I liked when Michael Cane was in the house, there was no music, this made us think that somebody else could have come out of nowhere, this helped the audience stay on the edge of their seats.

Silence of The Lambs

Another film we watched was the “Silence of the lambs.” This was a very useful film to watch as because it is quite old, most of the things in the film are easy to re-create, unlike Bad boys 2. The first scene the audience does not know what to think as we are immediately put into the middle of some woods, the camera angle adds to the suspense as it seems as though someone is watching her through the trees. However later on we find out it is a training exercise.

Another technique which I liked was the camera following her through the office, this way we see what she’s seeing.

The soundtrack also gives a sense as to how much music can play a major role in thriller films, the only reason we are slightly scared in the forest scene is because of the eerie music, this shows us that just a touch of music can completely change the mood.

 

Bad Boys II

The next film we looked was Bad Boys 2. There were a few things that I picked up which I thought were good ideas. For instance the idea of following something through many stages of manufacture, in this case the cocaine. This had a very good effect and drops you right in the action. I also thought that the camera work was very good as it was very fast and circulated around the main subject well, this also helped to tell the story as the camera would go past a character as he was saying something important. The music I also thought went very well with what was going on, on screen.

28 days Later

The first film we looked at was 28 days later. This was a very interesting film to watch as it had a lot of good techniques. The first technique which I picked up which I thought was very good and usable, was the complete silence that started the film. I thought this was a great idea as it draws the audience in straight away, this also adds to the suspense as to where he is etc.

Another technique they use is after the original silence, they bring in a soundtrack. The soundtrack gradually gets faster as he starts to find things, this makes the audiences heart increase, the will had to the tension once again.

The film begins and straight away it seems very eerie, they make this possible by having everything deserted which is normally packed with people. As this is the start of the film we do not know why everything is so deserted, however we are able to find out without any words being said. We find out by the “Jim” picking up a newspaper and reading the headline, I thought this was a very good a believable way of finding out what has happened.

The last technique I liked was the fast cutting between different angles, this adds to the pace of the film very well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Silence Of The Lambs

The bgining of silence of the lambs starts with slow music and natural sounds, like birds tweeting, this all adds atmosphere, you then hear the sound of a a woman breathing heavily, you then see the woman climbing a rope looking tired and sweaty after shes obviously been doing an assault course. You then hear a mans voice calling her over, he is wearing an FBI hatn whihc tells you a little bit more about who she might be, the camera then pans down over a sign which is meant to make people exercise harder.

The music becomes higher pitched and slightly faster than before. There is then a shot of a big building and the camera zooms in on a window, the camera then follows the woman through corridors and offices. The sound in the background is people chatting and working.

Music then slows down again as woman looks at the wall of photographs and newspaper cuttings and then there is a focus pull as a man enters the room.

Phone Booth and Bad Boys 2

The begining of phone booth is very clever, it uses CGI to look up in space at a satelite, whilst playing gospel music, it then zooms in really quickly on New York, i think it then zooms in on Time Square, this is all probably done using CGI, which is beyond our abilities to do in our film.
There are some sounds in the background with the music, there is a bust of static and the sound of many mobile phones and cars. The narrator then starts talking.

We then see the main character, whoi is made to look as steriotypically like a PR man as possible, they achieve this by showing him talking on the phone to lots of different people in quick succession, he puts lots of people on hold, he talks really fast, wears sun glasses, seems to know what hes talking about and very good at persueding people into doing what he wants. He is a very steriotypical character, he smokes, makes spur of the moment decisions and acts like he is superior to everyone. The character also has the inexperienced young helper to do all his work for him and follow him around.

The character is quite rude to a lot of people and acts like a steriotypical New Yorker, he swears a lot to show he means what he is saying and he becomes very paranoid when something out of the ordinary happens.

The film is very clever because the character gets stuck in a single place, this makes it very easy to film because it means there wont have to be many expensive shots.

Bad Boys 2

At the begining of Bad Boys 2 there is some text at the bottom of the screen saying where the place is. There is then lots of close up shots of machinery with the titles being played over them with some electro music being played in the background. There is a "blip" sound as text is shown quickly on the screen. The camera moves quickly and never really stops moving throughout.

There is then lots of dialogue from lots of different people and then it cuts to another scene of people being briefed for a mission. The scene is filmed at night in the dark, so that there is shadows. There is then a clip through a night vision camera, which gives a good point of view shot from the swat team.

A slow motion shot is then used as the main characters suprise the KKK, the main characters act quite steriotypical as american black men. Then there is a lot of quick movements for when one of the main characters is taken hostage, the camera then circles the hostage and the other main character gets angry whilst there is a lot of close ups on the hostages face.

When they start attacking each other there is alot of gun shot sounds and sparks flying, this is acompanied by some fast music. There is then more slow motion and a CGI bullet flies through the air and makes blood spray as it hits its target.

There are a few techniques that could be used but alot of the ones used in this film are beyond our abilities, as they are too much work, hard to do or too expensive.

Thriller films watched in class

28 days later

When we watched 28 days later, the first 10 minutes or so, the opening sequence where the main character wakes up, i liked the fact that there was very little dialogue because it gave a good effect of the main character being completely alone because there was no one else to speak to. Another part that was very good was when the car alarm went off and create false panic, because you weren't expecting something to happen then it just shocks you, but it turns out its nothing scary and its just a car, it gets a rise out of the audience. The film was clever as how to solve the problem of there being no people, they closed off the streets very early in the morning when no one is around. The music was very well done because it used the speed of the music to manipulate the audience.

Get Carter

We Watched the first sequence of Get Carter from the beginning to when he goes in the house and meets the woman. This film also had very little dialogue in the first sequence, this is an idea that we should use when making our video. The film had a very clever way of showing the credits without getting in the way of what was happening on screen, they were on a train and every time a train went through a tunnel, then the credits would be shown. There were also a couple of references to gangster culture in the form of props, for example, there was a news paper article refering to gang wars and Carter was reading the book "Farewell My Lovely" which is a fameous gangster book.

When Carter enters the bar, there is a focus pull to show him looking around. You learn a little about Carters character in the bar scene because the phone conversation shows that he has quite an aggressive personaliy and has a short fuse.

The key trick for how Carter enters the house is clever because it shows Carter getting the key from the outside, whilst the camera is on the inside. The next part is very quiet and has no dialogue, in the scene it is Carter looking around the house he has gotten into and then finding the body in a coffin and covering the bodys face. This silence is good for creating an atmosphere as it creates suspence.

Adams questionaire results

These are the answers i got from my questionaire:

1, What is your gender?

male 2

Female 4

2, What is your age?

16 (4 people)

17 (2 people)

3, Do you like thrillers?

yes (6 people)

no

4, What is your favourite thriller?

Alien
28 Days Later
Saw
Terminator
Silence of the Lambs
Mission Impossible
5, What do you look for in a thriller?

Suspence
Suspence, mystery, dramatic, irony
Action, cliffhangers
suspence
believable story
thrills

Analysis of films - Memento

In ‘Memento’, the backwards is extremely original, and emphasises the greatness of the movie, as it really needs the audience to think and become involved in the film, rather than not just passively let it flow in and out of their head. In my coursework, I would love to use the idea of starting at the end, but it wouldn’t take much thought. Maybe the idea of the ending happening first, and then going back to the beginning, so more and more unfolds, would be effective. Also, I enjoyed the first person thoughts, so it is as if the audience is in the head of the main character, and it really helps boost the feeling that one is part of the film.

Analysis on films - The Silence of the Lambs

In ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ I thought the eerie music added to the effect that nobody really knew what was going on. The FBI label on her jumper was very effective, as it allows the audience’s minds to go berserk in not knowing whether she is running away from or to something, or whether she is just simply doing a training exercise. When Jodie Foster goes back to the academy, it is extremely effective and almost amusing about how she controls with the patriarchal society in the building. The lift scene highlights this when she is a short and sweaty woman standing next to a bunch of identical and immaculately dressed men. One thing that I liked very much in this opening sequence was the use of signs. These were used to give the audience the general idea of what is going on without having to incorporate some un-necessary dialogue to the script.

Analysis on films - 28 Days Later

In '28 Days Later' I rather liked the idea of having very little dialogue, this is also similar to the beginning of Get Carter. When the man wakes up in hospital in '28 Days Later', the audience doesn't really have a great idea what is going on, the absence of music is very effective, this also allows the audience to hear even the most minute of details, including the fluttering of his eyelids. Due to this emphasis on the silence, very normal and generic sounds seem even more dramatic and eerie, for instance, the opening of the Pepsi can, which seems very loud and almost surprising purely because the audience are used to just hearing his footsteps and the odd cry of "hello?". For about 10 minutes the audience are not listening to much other than slight increases in dramatic music, when the main character sees the empty car, lots of tension and suspense is built from the increase in the speed of the music. The whole nothing-bad-has-actually-happened technique when the car alarm goes off is very effective as it lulls the audience into a false sense of security. I personally found it interesting when the main character finds out that there has been an evacuation through the newspaper and the music then speeds up. Even though there is no increase in action or suspense, the music speeds up to give the audience the impression of worry and that nobody knows what is going on.

Tom's Questionnaire Conclusion

Since gaining the results from my questionnaire, coming up with suitable plotline characteristics has become much easier. If I had complete control over what is going to happen in the 2 minute sequence, I would want as little dialogue as possible, as sometimes it can diminish the emphasis of the film when it is un-necessary. I would also want a good piece of music to play alongside the film. Due to the fact that the film Alpha Team will make will be so specific, making a piece of music for the sequence might be a good idea, as then we can time the track along the video, making it completely perfect.

My conclusion for my questionnaire

From looking at the results of my questionnaire, i can see that the audience loves a lot of suspence, a good plot and something that will have them getting scared. They also like music in the Thriller to set the mood. These results show me what i wanted to see, because i know what i look for in a thriller, but our group is not making the thriller for me, we are making it for our audience, and for the audience to like the same kind of characteristics in a thriller, this makes it easier, because we are putting things in that we, and the audience like . I think this will be a good piece for our group to work on, because from our individual questionnaires, so when we combine our results we have a very good overview on what the audience wants, to help us creat the perefect thriller sequence.

My Questionnaire

I carried out a questionnaire to find out what the audience likes in a Thriller film. This will help me and my group find out what to put in our sequence. I asked family members, friends, and neighbours. My questionnaire was easy to complete, as it consisted of short and simple answers.

Here is my questionnaire and the results i gathered;

- Do you like Thriller films?
1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. Yes
5. Yes

- What do you look for in a Thriller film?
1. Suspence, and a good plot
2. Goody and a bady with lots of scary scenes.
3. Tension and things that you think could happen in everyday life, which scares you to think so.
4. Something with a cliffhanger, so it leaves me wondering for ages after.
5. Lots of suspence, with a murder

- Do you like to see some light comedy in a Thriller?
1. A little.
2. Some, but too much could take away the thrilling side.
3. Yes, it lightens the mood
4. Yes, it makes the film less serious and i like comedy films, so a mixture of both would be good.
5. Not really, its a thriller and its meant to be scary, and have you sitting on the edge of your seat.

- Do you think that music adds effect to a Thriller film?
1. Yes, it creates the suspence
2. Yes
3. Definately
4. Yes, it makes it more tense, if you get the right music for the atmosphere.
5. Yes

Tom's Questionnaire

The best way to find out about what the audience want, is to ask them. In my survey, the questions were very simple and only needed a couple of words for each answer, this was handy, as it allowed me to not lose the answerer's interest. Here are the results from the 4 people I asked:

- What do you look for in a Thriller?
- Thrills, kills and automobiles.
- Tension and absurd reality, something that is almost unrealistic.
- A good storyline, something intriguing with a lot of tension.
- Something that will leave me forever in suspense.

- What qualities do you look for in the lead Protag/Antagonists?
- Protag = Bravery, Antag = Someone who is almost psychopathic.
- Protag = Charm and beauty, Antag = Uglyness and greed.
- Protag/Antag = Has to be good looking.
- Protag = Bravery, Kindness and forgiveness, Antag = Violence.

- Do you think that the music in a Thriller makes a big difference?
- Yes, for suspense purposes.
- Yes, most certainly.
- Definately.
- Yes, it makes a huge difference.

- Do you like serious Thrillers, or almost comedic ones?
- Definately serious, no comedy, as it dampens the emphasis of the film.
- Some comedy is good.
- Small amount of dry humour, maybe sarcasm, but nothing too desperate for laughs.
- It depends, but usually I would prefer a more serious film.

- Do you intense Thrillers that have to make you think, or lighthearted ones?
- Intense Thrillers are the best, ones with big twists.
- It depends on my mood, but normally lighthearted as they are easier to watch.
- Ones that make me think, no question.
- I would definately go for one that makes me think.

Phonebooth

In class we watched the opening sequence of Phonebooth.

One of the techniques that we as a group enjoyed was when whoever was on the other line of the phone suddenly appeared at the bottom right or left hand side of the screen. This was useful to the audience as it showed their reactions due to what the main character said. When Kiefer Sutherland set up the three way conversation between Stew, himself and Stew's secret girlfriend, the shot of Stew then closes in on him, making more and more of the screen being filled up with just black, this adds emphasis to the tension between Stew and the secret girlfriend. 

Possible Scenarios to fulfill the what the audience want

The first scenario that i thought included these ideas;

• 1 man, 5 people to kill.
• 5 men, have all be given a letter in a briefcase.
• The problem is that they are not meant to have the letter.
• The reason the one man "Mr P" has to kill them because the infomation thats in their. possesion is about "Mr P's" family.
• The infomation has to be captured before it gets into more hands.
• The twist is that "Mr P" has just escaped from prison therefore he has to keep a low profile.
• The briefcase holds the truth to "Mr P's" family.

The second Scenario i came up with consisted of the following ideas;

• Three kids realise that their village is in the middle of a conspiricy against the government.
• The small organisation is being run in a hideaway.
• The kids job is to get inside the hideaway and destroy files.
• The twist is that one of the children may be undercover.

The third scenario;

• Innocent country life
• Man witnesses a murder in the village and thinks he knows who it is
• He realises that the murderer is a child from a good family background
• The man is stuck between telling the police or not.
• The man tries to talk to the boy but never finds him
• He finnally sees him riding a dirt bike through the forest wearing a mask, its the same mask he found near the other murder scen, he has to catch him before he commits another murder.
• The man chases the boy on his motorbike through the trees before finally catching him.
• As the boy stops and looks back to face the man, three other masked boys step out of the trees holding bits of wood.
• The man gets on his dirtbike and rides off in terror knowing the boys know who he is and know he's in for a rough ride.

These are just a few ideas i had for the film.

My Conclusions based on the Research from My questionnaire

I feel that from the research i have picked up roughly what people are looking for.
So from looking at my research i can see that people look for a good, clever plot with a lot of tension and also a good qualoty soundtrack to get them in the mood.
I think this research will help our group as the answers from the people taking part in the questionnaire are not out of reach, for instance; soundtrack and suspense are both things our group can work on to make a perfect thriller.

Adams Research

For my research i made a questionaire to ask 6 people, so that i could get an idea of what a audience wants in a thriller.

My Questions Were:

1, What is your gender?

male

Female

2, What is your age?

3, Do you like thrillers?

yes

no

4, What is your favourite thriller?

5, What do you look for in a thriller?

Goal Of My Questionnaire

The goal of my questionnaire was to find out what people are looking for in their perfect thriller, i asked a total of 6 people several different questions.

the questionnaire consisted of the following:

1. Do you like thrillers?
   

All six people said yes.

2. Do you like thrillers to be plot driven? If so, What kind of plot?

"Yes, however i prefer the plots to be understandable"

"Yes, i like the plots to have a twist at the end"

"Yes, i like the plots to be clever so you have to work them out"
" I like it to be understandable"
"Yes, a plot that keeps you in suspense"
"Yes, clever plots"

3. What do you look for in a thriller?

"Suspense"
"Something that keeps you on the edge of your seat"
"Realism"
"Suspense"
"fast action, good plot"
"i like to be a bit scared"

4. What do you look for in a leading actor/actress?

"Conviction"
"Presense"
"Convincing"
"For him or her to be realistic and imaginable"
"Clever, good with action"
"Convincing"

5. Is the soundtrack an important part to you?

"Not really, not in a thriller"
"yes, i feel it sets the mood"
"I think it makes it more exciting, adds to the tension"
"Yes, it adds to the suspense"
"When the film starts and the music starts, it puts you in the night mood"
"Yes because it can make it more easy"

Research

After we had been given our objective, we decided to do some research on our set task. This had to consist of primary and secondary research. 

For our primary research we decided that a questionnaire was the first step to take, in discovering the general public's preferences in Thriller films.

The A Team

Hello, we are students from Newport Free Grammar school. Our team consists of Adam Burns, Lorena Pearmain, Tom Abraham and Richard Gough. 

Our mission is to make a 2 minute opening sequence for a Thriller film.